Literally two posts ago we were talking about how prolific Martin Scorsese is and Boom! Here comes Marty with another one, with news of a project that could reteam him with an actor who’s been something of a muse of his over the past fifteen or so years. Deadline reports that Scorsese will reteam once again with Leonardo DiCaprio for a biopic of Teddy Roosevelt.

To those who haven’t boned up on this history, the 25th president, one of the Mount Rushmore faces, overcame a sickly childhood to become one of America’s most active, action-packed politicians, and eventually became the youngest president at the age of 42 after the death of William McKinley.

Given *gestures at the shitshow of America in the last 11 months*, it’s perhaps not surprising that the last time white people went truly bugnuts crazy, in the early 1990s, has been capturing the imagination of filmmakers recently. “Oklahoma City,” about the worst domestic terrorism incident in American history, is one of the best documentaries we’ve seen this year, Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany starred in a miniseries about the Unabomber, and Jaume Collet-Serra is planning a movie about the Waco siege.

Unlike some legendary A-list filmmakers, Martin Scorsese has always been fairly prolific. He fairly reliably knocks out a movie every two or three years, and has never let more than four pass between major films (the gap between “The Departed” and “Shutter Islalnd” was his longest. Somehow, in that time, Scorsese’s also been a fairly prolific documentary filmmaker as well — this century alone has seen his films on Bob Dylan, George Harrison, The Rolling Stones and the New York Review Of Books, among many others.

Man, if people had been offering David Bowie acting roles while he was still alive at the same rate they seemed to just after he died, he would have been busier than Jessica Chastain. One of the rare singers to successfully crossover into acting without embarassing himself, Bowie’s last screen role was, of all things, cameoing as himself in Vanessa Hudgens-starring teen movie “Bandslam” in 2009.

There are few sub-genres more tired these days than the found-footage horror. When “Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity” revitalized it, it felt like a deeply exciting new idea, but quickly the tropes were ran into the ground and the intrinsic cheapness of the genre began to feel like an excuse. It’s somewhat gone out of fashion in recent years, but one of the few worthwhile examples in recent years was Patrick Brice’s “Creep.”

The film didn’t break new formal ground, but thanks to assured direction by Brice, and a tremendous performance by indie king Mark Duplass (who also co-wrote and produced the film), it proved to be a pleasingly unsettling and unnerving lo-fi take on the found footage picture.

After seven seasons, 67 episodes and countless grisly deaths, “Game Of Thrones” is finally nearing its endgame-of-thrones. With **Spoiler** Littlefinger in the ground, Jon and Daenerys incestuously hooking up, and a blue-fire-breathing undead dragon in the hands of the Night King **End Spoiler** just six episodes of HBO’s blockbusting show remain.

The eighth and final season of the adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic likely won’t arrive until 2019 thanks to the coming of winter (shooting has to start later due to the greater number of snowy environments), and likely a heftier-than-usual effects elements, but production is gearing up for the final run of episodes, and HBO have announced, via The Hollywood Reporter, the directors who’ll be bringing the final run to the screen, and they’re all familiar names for Thrones fans.

Continue reading ‘Game Of Thrones’ Reveals Directors For Final Season at The Playlist.
»

The directorial debut of producer Dean Devlin (“Independence Day”) was always going to draw sneers from disaster-movie haters. Yet Devlin’s long-delayed, wannabe blockbuster “Geostorm” risks failing to live up to the presumably low expectations of fans of films like “2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow.”

While I acknowledge and appreciate that it had many fans, and I’m very happy for them, I absolutely loathed the original “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” I love the spy actioner genre, loved the idea of Colin Firth in an action role, enjoy Taron Egerton very much as a performer, and yet every minute of “Kingsman” was a garish, plastic-action-sequenced, mean-spirited, fundamentally gross 90s men’s magazine come to life.

With their run of live-action retellings of classic Disney musical fairytales proving enormous business — this year’s “Beauty & The Beast” is the tenth highest-grossing movie of all time — it’s no surprise that the Mouse House is doubling down on the genre. New versions of “Mulan,” “The Nutcracker,” “Dumbo,” “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” are set to hit theaters in the next two years alone, and there’s plenty more in development beyond that.

Continue reading David Oyelowo To Star In Disney Musical ‘Cyrano The Moor’ From ‘Moonlight’ Creator at The Playlist.
»

Few surprises in recent years have been as impressive as “Ex Machina.” The directorial debut of “28 Days Later” and “The Beach” screenwriter Alex Garland, it had little buzz in advance, but proved to be an incredibly taut, clever, surprising little sci-fi chamber piece that shed new light on the A.I. story, with a terrific cast of Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac.

If there was ever any doubt about the eternal appeal of nostalgia and how absolutely terrifying clowns are, “It” proved those doubts to be misguided. At the start of the year, few thought that the film, a relatively inexpensive adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal horror novel with a cast of almost exclusively newcomers, and from a filmmakers with only one feature behind him, to be a box office champion.

The “Avatar” phenomenon, or lack of a long tail on it, is one of the weirdest stories in movie history. James Cameron’s sci-fi epic was a gargantuan, unprecedented hit back in 2009 — only two other movies have come within even a billion dollars of its $2.788 billion take (Cameron’s own “Titanic” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”), and they’re both at least $600 million behind.

Peter Gallagher speaks the following line in the new movie by CW actor Ryan Eggold: “Don’t dick me around, guy. We are on a strict deadline. ‘Nature Calls with Orson Schwartzman’ waits for no man.” Gallagher is playing Orson Schwartzman, the fictional host of that fictional nature show. Now, you don’t have Peter Gallagher show up in your movie for three minutes, give him a name like “Orson Schwartzman,” and have him say the line “[d]on’t dick me around, guy.

Continue reading ‘Literally, Right Before Aaron’ Is A Strange, Tonally Confused Romcom [Review] at The Playlist.
»

Sometimes half the battle between being a good and a great show is knowing when to end. There are countless examples of series that perhaps went one season too long, or by contrast, didn’t get the space they needed to tell the story they wanted. For HBO‘s “The Deuce,” however, it looks like creators David Simon and George Pelecanos already have a gameplan, and for those of you who you like your narratives lean and mean, this going to be some good news.

The fall film festival season is almost at a close. Audiences have heard first word from Venice, Telluride, the Toronto International Film Festival, to a lesser degree Fantastic Fest, and coming up this week is the New York Film Festival (don’t forget about AFI Fest which closes out the season in November). Not as huge on world premieres as the previous, aforementioned festivals, it still has tricks up its sleeve.

Continue reading New York Film Festival: 12 Must-See Movies To Watch at The Playlist.
»

The opening scenes of director’s Michael Matthews “Five Fingers for Marseilles” — which premiered in the Discovery section of this year’s edition of Toronto International Film Festival, and is now screening at Fantastic Fest — already pay homage to the genre he hopes to breathe new life into. With dazzling wide-open shots, Matthews brings the spaghetti western to South Africa, all the while examining issues of apartheid and colonialism through the native people’s lenses.

The “Underworld” franchise has achieved the remarkable feat of lasting five films, but making no real impact on the pop culture sphere. The series — which is best known as that one where Kate Beckinsale wears leather and points guns at people — has always made a tidy profit, and pulled in enough overseas to justify making another one, but no one actually cares about the films. (Do they?) In fact, before last year’s “Underworld: Blood Wars,” there was already talk of rebooting the property entirely, and while they ultimately decided to continue for one more flick, the time has arrived to give it a fresh coat of paint.

IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.